The Ghost Woman and the Hunter
by BlueNeutrino
Summary: Set in AVP comic/novel universe and Alex Rider 22nd century AU. Machiko Noguchi is a deadly she-predator. Yassen Gregorovich is a lethal assassin. That makes them worthy opponents in anyone's estimation. DISCONTINUED
1. First Confrontation

_**The Ghost Woman and the Hunter**_

**Summary: Machiko Noguchi is a deadly she-predator. Yassen Gregorovich is a lethal assassin. That makes them worthy opponents in anyone's estimation.**

**A/N: I'll be the first to admit that this idea is kinda crazy. It comes from me seeing too characters who I thought were, although unrivalled in their own canons, would be very well matched if they were brought together for a fight. Which is probably how the Alien vs Predator franchise was started in the first place, although I'll admit the way I've gone about combining universes makes much less sense than the way it was done for that.**

**So, to briefly sum up the background for this story: Machiko Noguchi is a character from the AVP novels and comic books who joined a predator clan after helping one of their leaders kill a queen xenomorph. After aiding the predators she hunted with one of their clans for a while, although this story is set when she's given that up and has begun re-integrating herself into human life. However, she's still got all her predator skills and weapons meaning could take on someone like Yassen if necessary. It may also be useful to know that ****she's Japanese, and an ex-employee of the Chigusa corporation. **  


**Yassen is still a master assassin working for Scorpia, although it's a 22nd century version of Scorpia that has dealings with the likes of corrupt organisations such as Weyland-Yutani. My options for this story were to have an AU where all the events of Alex Rider took place in the 22nd century, or to have some weird kind of Yassen-clone thing going on like they did with Ripley in Alien 4 (but I didn't much like that) so I've decided I'm just going to write this based on the loose assumption that all events in the Alex Rider universe have been moved forward 100 years. However, they're not going to be central to the story so it hopefully won't affect things too much. The mismatched timelines mean that this will probably make no sense and have huge plot holes, but I'm afraid I have a bunny for for pitting Yassen against Machiko now and I can't make it go away.**

**I'm trying to keep them both in character since that's the reason I had the idea for this in the first place, but ****Alex Rider canon has (in the nicest way possible) gone to hell. AVP canon may be a bit flaky as well.**  


**Title because of a Lacuna Coil Song I rather like and it seemed vaguely relevant. I'll change it if I can think of anything better.**

**Disclaimer: Apologies to Anthony Horowitz for buggering up his creation. I don't know if the comic book writers or Steve and Stephani Perry came up with Machiko, but I don't own her.**

**-oOo-**

_It isn't every day somebody turns up at your apartment trying to kill you, _Machiko Noguchi thought as she walked into her kitchen one morning to find a man attempting to do just that. He was standing on the far side of the room opposite her, holding a gun that was levelled at her head. She thought she ought to be scared, but death seemed like a much less frightening prospect when she faced it at the hands of a handsome blond holding a pistol, and not at the jaws of a queen xenomorph. She still felt a little uneasy, but something told her she was unlikely to die today. When she spoke, her voice was calm and steady. "I take it you've been sent here to kill me."

"That is why I'm holding the pistol, yes."

His voice was deep with a slightly rough tone. He spoke with what sounded like a standard English accent, but there was just the hint of something else that Machiko couldn't quite place. "And are you going to at least tell me your name before you decide to shoot me?"

He paused for a moment as he considered whether or not to tell her, then decided it would do no harm. "Yassen Gregorovich."

The name sounded Russian, and that made sense to Machiko as it explained his accent. "Who was it who sent you? Someone from Chigusa?"

"Weyland-Yutani, actually."

She was surprised he'd actually told her, but she couldn't think why a company like Weyland-Yutani would want her dead.

"So why don't you just get on and do it, Mr Gregorovich?"

"Actually, I was hoping you'd be able to tell me." He was still holding the gun pointed at her, but he didn't look like he had much of an inclination to use it.

She frowned at his response. "What do you mean?"

"Well, my instructions are not to simply kill you. They are to _hunt _you. I'd hoped before I did just that, you might be able to explain to me why that is the case."

She gave a secretive smile. "I could certainly tell you, although it would no doubt be much more interesting for you to just get on with it and find out for yourself."

He switched to speaking Japanese, which surprised her. "_I have no desire to make things interesting."_

"_That's not very sporting."_

"_I have no desire to be sporting either. I'm only interested in fulfilling the terms of my contract."_

Now that she was certain he wasn't going to kill her, she found him quite amusing. _"That's a shame. You seem like an honourable killer."_

"_Honour is irrelevant."_

"_You'll have a hard time hunting me then."_

She knew she was managing to confuse him, and even though he was trying not to let it show she could see he was scowling slightly. _"You know, Ms Noguchi, I usually make it my business to find out everything I can about my targets before I kill them. There is a distinct lack of information, however, on what it is you have been doing for the past seven years. Perhaps you'd be able to enlighten me?"_

She avoided the question. _"Your Japanese is very good. Not quite as impressive as your English, though."_

"_Thank you. I'll make a point of improving. Now will you please answer the question."_

She switched back to English. "What's the point? We both know you aren't going to shoot me."

There was a pause during which neither of them spoke, and then Yassen lowered the gun. "Very well. It's not important. I believe it's only fair that I give you a head start, so you might want to consider leaving this place before the end of the day. If I come back later and find you've called the police rather than attempting to run, I can assure you it will only result in many more people dying needlessly."

He turned and headed towards the door.

"You really have no idea what you're letting yourself in for, do you?" she called out after him.

He paused at the door and turned back to look at her. "Neither, I think, do you," and with that he exited the room and left Machiko alone in her apartment once more.


	2. The Huntress Prepares

**A/N: Apologies for these chapters being so short. If I start trying to write this fic properly as something that's my main focus I'll make sure they're longer.  
**

**To ReillyScarecrowRocks: Thanks for your review! Yeah, Machiko is human. If you haven't read the books, the basic synopsis is that she kills a queen xenomorph in the 22****nd**** century, gets blooded by a chief predator and then goes round hunting with them for a few years before deciding to go back to living with humans for a bit, which is when this story takes place. I won't be dwelling on her past too much in this though, because if I do that with her I have to do that with Yassen too, and obviously Alex Rider canon doesn't hold up in this timeline. If you want to read the books you can get them dead cheap off of Amazon – they're really good reads if you're interested. Hope you enjoy this chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing other than the sheer insanity required to fuse these two fandoms together.**

**-oOo-**

Machiko waited for the door to swing shut before turning and hurrying back into her bedroom. _So he wants to hunt me, does he? _she thought as she crossed to her closet and pulled the doors open forcefully. _Well, let's see what he's got. _She bent down to pick up a box from the bottom of the closet which she then set down on the bed. _Let's see what he's got with his pistols and his semi-automatics and his sniper rifles. He doesn't know what he's getting into._

The first thing she took out of her box was her mask, which she gazed at appreciatively before setting it to one side. This was followed by the combi-stick, which she checked to make sure it still expanded properly before collapsing it again and setting it down by the mask. She then picked up her wrist blades, and tested their sharpness against her finger before placing them down next to the other items. Still sharp. Still deadly.

Maybe this Hunt of Gregorovich's might be the interesting thing she'd been wanting to happen for months. Sure, he seemed like he knew what he was doing when it came to killing ordinary people, but she wasn't an ordinary person. She glanced up at the mirror on the opposite wall and smiled as she saw the reflection of the lightning bolt scar on her forehead. He may be a professional assassin, but he hadn't been marked with the blood of the _kainde amedha. _

She picked up a small knife from the box and took it out of its sheath to examine it. It served little practical purpose on a hunt, but it was still important to her in its own way. Her hunter's name. _Dahdtoudi. _Little Knife.

She sheathed it again and then looked down at the last thing in the box. It was the xenomorph skull she'd claimed as a trophy many years earlier. She'd displayed it above her door at her house on Ryushi for the first year after she'd claimed it, and she wished she still kept it displayed above her door now. _Maybe then he would have thought twice before coming here. _

Turning back to the closet, she took out her armour and mesh body suit, which she placed downed on the bed before planning what she was going to do. _He's completely underestimated me, _she thought. If he wanted to have a hunt, then that was fine by her. She just wasn't going to tell him that he was the prey.


	3. The Assassin Returns

**A/N: Hmm, okay. Sorry it's rather short again, but I think I have come up with the beginnings of a plot now…**

**Disclaimer: As much as I wish I did own these characters, I'm afraid that I don't.  
**

**-oOo-**

Yassen hadn't underestimated Machiko Noguchi, no matter what she seemed to think. Granted, he barely knew anything of her history or what she was capable of, but that was exactly why he knew to be more cautious. If anything, she seemed to be rather arrogant and over-confident in her own ability, which meant she was either deluded or genuinely that good. It was safer for Yassen to assume it was the latter.

When he arrived back at her apartment later, he found it in exactly the state he'd been expecting. He'd never truly expected her to call the police, but he'd given her the warning anyway, just to be sure, and it also had the effect of perhaps giving her the wrong impression about him, which he could use to his advantage. The apartment seemed empty, but he didn't believe for a second she'd gone far. He'd got the impression she was the kind of person who fought rather than running away, and he suspected she was trying to throw him off the trail by pretending to have done as he instructed.

He'd had to pick the lock in order to access the apartment, but that didn't mean anything. Inside, the kitchen looked exactly as it had done earlier – perfectly normal, as if the flat's occupant was merely out at work. He walked through the kitchen area to the open plan living space, which also looked as if nothing was out of place, and then he headed towards the door that he assumed led to her bedroom. As he pushed the door open and glanced inside, everything seemed completely normal. There was the possibility that she was waiting for him, hiding somewhere in the room, but he was prepared for that and he held his p-sec out in front of him as he pushed the door further open and entered. Glancing round, nothing seemed out of place. If anything, the room seemed _too _tidy. The bed was perfectly made and there was a distinct lack of clutter anywhere. There were no personal possessions anywhere, or any kind of decoration on the walls or the furniture. He walked over to the window and looked out. Noguchi's apartment was on the seventh floor of a residential block, and there was nothing to see outside her window other than the building opposite and the concrete paved floor of the courtyard below. He thought he should probably check out there next: it was likely she was still in the building.

As he turned back to leave the bedroom he suddenly stopped, noticing what it was that was hung above the door. It was the skull of some kind of creature, but it was unlike anything he had ever seen before. It was strangely elongated, with no eye sockets and a set of jaws that housed long, vicious looking teeth. He walked closer to the door and looked up at it, thinking it was an incredibly ugly thing, before reaching up to take it off the hook that held it in place. It was an odd colour for a skull, he thought as he examined it more closely, like a faded grey, as if it had once been black. The texture was rather odd too, very smooth with a slightly glossy feel, unlike human bone. _What on earth was it? _The skull of some kind of alien creature, no doubt, but nothing he recognised. Did that mean she'd discovered some new kind of lifeform? A dangerous one? A useful one? Was that why Weyland-Yutani wanted her dead? Normally he didn't ask questions about the reasons behind his assignments, but on this occasion he was intrigued. _Why did she have it above the door?_

As he considered the immaculate tidiness of the rest of the room and the contrasting hideousness of this thing, he could only come to one conclusion. It was on display. It was on display as a warning to him: she'd killed it, and she'd kill him too. He smiled, mildly impressed, but still not yet afraid. Unlike this alien creature, he had intelligence and advanced technology on his side.

He noticed the three red dots of light creeping over his arm a few moments before he chose to react to them. It wasn't a targeting system he'd seen before, but he most definitely knew what it was. It had surprised him slightly, but he didn't let it show. He knew it was best to let the sniper – let _Noguchi – _believe he was oblivious until the very last second. Just as the lights crept over his chest and knew they were moving up towards his face, he dived through the open door in front of him, and a moment after he did so something exploded in the room behind him. Turning round, he saw one of the (empty) bookshelves in the room had collapsed to the floor and was charred black in places, as if it had been hit with a burst of plasma. Yassen glanced down at the pistol in his hands and wished he'd chosen to bring one of his larger weapons. Things had just got interesting.


	4. Exchange of Fire

**A/N: Nope, I've not given up on this. Just taken a very, very long break from it. Don't know when I'll update again, but I doubt it'll be soon. Sorry, but I'm concentrating more on other stories at the moment and taking my time with this one. I'm just sort of doing this for fun, whereas I've got two long multi-chapter fics on the go right now which I'm taking more seriously (still for fun, but you know what I mean).  
**

**To ReillyScarecrowRocks: Hey, I hadn't forgotten about this! I don't know if you're still interested in reading it, but I'll be really grateful if you are :)**

**Disclaimer (and an apology): This is probably only the second craziest crossover concept I've encountered (the first being a Harry Potter/Winnie the Pooh fic about Snape and Eeyore) so sorry for borrowing someone else's characters and doing something so nonsensical with them. Although in a weird sort of way I think it works.**

Machiko could see him enter her room from where she clung to the side of the building opposite. She was several storeys off the ground, but that didn't bother her: compared to some of the things she'd encountered heights were easy to deal with. She watched him look around the room, and was unable to prevent herself from smiling when he looked out of the window directly at her and then turned away again. The light bending camouflage she had in use really wasn't all that effective. He ought to have been able to make out some sort of blurred or distorted shape against the concrete of the building, but he wasn't looking for the right thing. Machiko wasn't entirely sure what he was expecting to see, but she was fairly certain that if he ever did get to find out what she looked like now then he'd be surprised by it. It was possible he thought she might be wearing some kind of combat gear, but to see her wearing armour made of alien hide and strange metals decorated with skulls would probably come as a shock to him. She was also equipped with her old yautja weaponry, and was wearing bracers with fixed-in wrist blades and had her combi-stick strapped to her back. The full face mask she wore had a range of vision filters and she could also use it to control the plasma caster she had attached to her left shoulder: not as easy for her as it was for a yautja with mandibles, but with a few modifications to the mask she could still use it. There hadn't been time for her to put her hair back in the braids she'd had seven years ago, but she thought she'd rather like to if she got chance. It felt good to be back on the hunt, as if she was back where she belonged.

Admittedly, the reason she'd left in the first place was because she didn't want to have to hunt members of her own species, but if one of them wanted to hunt _her _then she thought that made him fair game. Gregorovich deserved what was coming to him.

She watched as he took the xenomorph skull off the hook where she'd left it and she smiled to herself behind the mask. _That's it, _she thought, _you take a good long look at that. Realised what a huge mistake you're making yet?_

Machiko activated the targeting system on her shoulder cannon and began to train it on Gregorovich. The three pinpoints of red light showed up against his shirt but he didn't seem to notice. She was almost disappointed. Someone had sent a professional assassin after her and she was going to be able to pick him off too easily. How dull.

She was slightly hesitant as the automatic targeting system in the mask locked on to his face and she prepared to activate the plasma cannon. It would be rather boring if this was over with too quickly, but still, he was the one who'd come after her and if he really was so careless as to just stand there without noticing what was about to happen then he deserved everything he got.

She fired the cannon…and to her surprise, missed completely.

Gregorovich had dived out of the way at the last second, so that the plasma burst hurtled past him and collided with a bookshelf on the far side of the room. Machiko scowled slightly at the thought she'd just destroyed her own furniture, but then grinned. He'd managed to fool her into thinking he hadn't noticed anything until the very last second. Maybe this was going to be interesting after all.

She was just recharging the cannon and preparing to take another shot when two bullets ricocheted off of the concrete wall next to her. As she flinched away in surprise she felt her left foot slip off of the ledge she was balancing on and she knew she was about to fall. With her right foot she kicked off from the wall to propel herself a few feet sideways to where a drainpipe was running down the outside of the building, and she grabbed onto it to keep herself close to the wall as she slid down to land on a ledge one storey below. No time to panic about that close call: she had to make the next move fast.

Machiko looked back up at her bedroom window and realised that Gregorovich must be firing from the next window along. She couldn't see him, which meant he must be ducking down. None of the vision filters on her mask would let her see through the solid concrete of the outside wall, but when he appeared to shoot at her again she could still fire through the open window. It would just be a case of which of them could fire first, and with the automatic targeting system on her side Machiko thought she had the advantage.

There were just a couple of seconds' pause in which Machiko trained the plasma cannon on the open window and prepared to fire again, but was shocked when she saw a ripple of movement in the window just below and two more shots ricocheted off the wall just a few feet above her head. Gregorovich clearly knew roughly where to aim at now, even if he wasn't able to see her clearly. He must be firing at the haze of distortion that was showing up against the building, but how had he managed to get down to the floor below so quickly? It would have taken him at least three minutes to go back into the building to reach the stairs or even the elevators, so how had he managed to do it in a matter or seconds? Machiko had to admit she was impressed despite herself, but he still didn't stand a chance.

She was ready and aiming again when she saw him reappear at the window and aimed his pistol in her general direction, and the sight of it made her want to laugh. _Just a pistol? It's kind of a pathetic weapon compared to what I've got._

Another burst of plasma erupted from her shoulder cannon but Machiko didn't have time to see if it hit home or not. She just managed to register Gregorovich suddenly jerking the gun upwards to aim at something above her head, before she felt something wet spill over her head and shoulders and the vision on her mask disappeared into a haze of static. As the camouflage mechanism on her armour short circuited she realised she was becoming visible and all her electronic weaponry would be deactivated. She quickly put her left hand up to tilt the mask up on to the top of her head to allow herself a clear line of sight again and looked up to see where the sudden rush of water had come from. The drain pipe she was holding onto joined to a trough several metres above her, and she realised that the point at which they met had been blown apart by a pistol bullet so that all the water in the trough had spilled out down onto her.

_How in hell had he known to do that?_

She was, in all honesty, pretty shocked. That had been a damn good shot, for one, and how had he managed to work out that she was using electronic camouflage? Whoever it was who wanted her dead had hired a damn good assassin to do it, and Machiko thought she wanted to know why.

She looked down again to stare across at the opposite window where Gregorovich was standing, his pistol levelled at her and with a satisfied smile on his face.

She glared back. This wasn't over yet.


End file.
